Writing a fantasy book?

I’ve always loved writing stories and poetry, but was very put off when I was at school. I was never happy with all the (Sp?) for poor spelling all over my work. I never grasped why my teachers didn’t just assess it on the story itself!

I have been thinking for a while about writing a fantasy book. I have never been a big reader, but I do have a great imagination. I started writing down ideas last year, most ideas coming from weird dreams that I’ve had. I know the basic idea of my story, I know most of the key plot twists and a background on some of the main characters.

Yesterday I decided that I would start putting my ideas down into One Note. I have started writing up the genealogy of the characters, partly based on what I know of my own family tree. I want to make sure that I have as much ‘history’ and background for my story so that the little world I create makes sense to me when I am writing.

As I have no experience in this kind of thing, I don’t know if the detail I am going into before I start writing is excessive or if all writers do the same?

Everyone does writing differently. I’m someone who just starts writing and wants to be surprised by the upcoming ideas in the process of writing but yes, you should know from the beginning where your story is headed.
But there also the others, the more structural types. A good friend of mine writes in this style. She sketches the characters, the background story and the cities or countries, the story will take place in. I think there is no right way to do it, but if you want to go through with this you should note every idea you have on paper and decide later if you want to keep some of them. It’s like … putting together a puzzle. … I hope that helped a little bit? Good luck!! 🙂

Yeah I can’t sketch but I was thinking of doing the same so I know and remember the visual of the character. I have map ideas too of the geographics for the book too. And I have been writing on paper but now started to put it all onto the computer so it’s not my unreadable dyslexic handwriting and spelling errors!

I am doing exactly what you are thinking about doing. I started writing a fantasy book about a year and a half ago.

The best advice I received from a published author was… “Just start writing. Don’t worry about spelling, the formation of your thoughts, or punctuation. Just start writing…, and you’ll fix that stuff later. Let your mind wonder.”

I took her advice, and it worked. I had an idea where I wanted the story to go, and wrote those ideas down. Yet, I didn’t limit myself. When the story drifted from my original plot, I adjusted. Sometimes, after writing what I thought would work, I ended up changing it completely (for the better).

It’s a fun adventure! Don’t hesitate… Have fun!

Recently, I started my blog about my experience with writing and the process of getting my book published (hopefully). I will be posting my research and ideas that worked for me (and what didn’t work for me). I needed a place to log my research and what I’ve learned – for my own reference. So, why not blog it? Maybe it can help you, too.